This blog continues my effort to chronicle my writing life, my efforts to market my work, and now my life as co-owner of a small press. I use this blog to explore the thoughts, feelings, and very nature of being an author and a publisher. I am the author of 5 detective novels, 4 action thrillers and a marketing manual. I am also the editorial director of Intrigue Publishing. I am active in local writer’s organizations and co-founded the Creatures, Crimes & Creativity conference.

Saturday, August 20, 2016

Last
time I told you that giving your people more than one conflict helps the reader
care about them. Usually one is more
personal than the other, although they can be related.

In
my plot class I talk about the secondary plot. In that context, let’s consider
the movie Die Hard. The big, obvious
conflict is between a cop – McLane - who wants to save a group of hostages, and
a terrorist whose true objective we don’t get to know until almost the end of
the film. But note that McLane is also wrestling with a more personal conflict
with his wife and we are not allowed to lose sight of that conflict throughout
the film. It’s easier for us to relate
to that more personal objective. That helps us relate to the character. Just like in Rocky (the example I used in a
previous blog) I have never wanted to get punched by a heavyweight champ but HAVE
wanted a woman to love and respect me, so that goal helps me relate to the
character.

Your
protagonist, and maybe your antagonist too, should also have internal
conflicts. It might be okay for your
villain to be willing to do whatever it takes to take over the world, get the
girl or win the race, but your protagonist should have to consider his response
to each challenge on a moral basis. Sure
he can save the hostage by shooting the bad guy in the head, sure he can find
the killer by lying to everyone about what he already knows, of course he can
get the girl by flattening the other fellow’s tire… but SHOULD he? Yes, many people like a totally confident
protagonist, and your story might work fine without internal conflict… but it
will be better with it.

Remember,
conflict is about character. In a good
novel, or movie for that matter, the protagonist will grow and change during
the story. It is the conflict that makes that change. Overcoming each challenge
forces our protagonist to show the strength, or determination, or quick wits we
want to see in a heroes, and the challenge the conflicts present force him to
change.

And since conflict makes a story, so you need
more than just conflict between the primary protagonist and antagonist. There
should be some sort of conflict in every scene. What if everyone in the scene
agrees on what they want to do? Then they can still disagree on how to do it,
or when.

Saturday, August 13, 2016

Last
week I talked about the importance of conflict in your fiction. Conflict, as I stated then, is a function of
your characters’ motivations. Your protagonist and antagonist must need to have
or do things, and those things must be in conflict. These motivations can
appear to be simple at the beginning of your story. The characters may even
think so themselves at first. But you,
the writer, need to know the deep down reason why their opposing goals are
important to these people before you begin to build your plot. If they don’t
care deeply about these goals, your reader won’t care either. And if only one is deeply invested, readers
will wonder why the other one doesn’t just give up.

As
an example, let’s consider Rocky – Sylvester Stallone’s first sold script. Yes,
it’s a boxing movie, but how much of the film is actual fighting? That’s good evidence that, as i said earlier,
conflict is not violence. What does our protagonist, Rocky, really want in that
film? He wants a shot at the title. Keep
that in mind, because his actual objective is important. But he also wants to
prove he’s not a loser. And he wants his girl to respect him.

Our
antagonist – Apollo – wants to prove once again that he is the best ever. There’s
another lesson here: note that the antagonist isn’t necessarily a villain. He doesn’t have to be evil. And I prefer stories in which both the
protagonist and the antagonist have worthy goals and are both absolutely
determined to attain them.

In
that context you can see that the plot of the movie is not about who’s the best
boxer. It’s all about what Rocky is willing to do to attain his goals. Each beat in the script is about Rocky facing
some obstacle to achieving one of his goals. And really, he’s not particularly
good at much of anything. Consequently,
each beat in the film contains a conflict that shows us how badly rocky wants
these things he is driven to have.

To help us care about your protagonist it is
good for him or her to face more than one conflict. Next week I’ll talk about
how to use multiple conflicts to raise the stakes and strengthen characterization.

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

At
the recent writing symposium put on by the Virginia Writers Club I discussed conflict
and suspense – two elements i have to lean hard on to create crime fiction. Without
conflict, you don't have a story. Conflict drives your story forward. And without
suspense, readers have no reason to get to the end of your story. Suspense
draws your readers thru the story to a satisfying conclusion.

You
may think that the genres I write makes these elements easier to use. In fact, they apply to all fiction worth
reading. But to be clear: conflict is
not violence. Suspense is not mystery.

Conflict
is a function of character. It’s about human
motivations.

Suspense
is a function of plot. It’s about
pacing.

Today
I’ll talk a little about the use of conflict. Most good stories are driven by
some external conflict. The protagonist
– the person we cheer for – needs to do something, go someplace, get something…
and the antagonist – the person we boo – has opposing goals.

In
a romance, it might be as simple as the leading lady wanting eternal love and
the fellow she’s attracted to not wanting to be tied down. In a murder mystery
the hero wants to find the killer, and the killer doesn’t want to be found. Most
often in thrillers the villain’s objective kicks off the story, and the
protagonist’s goal is to stop him from accomplishing that objective. But one way or another, whatever the goals
they are pursuing, they must be very important to both the protagonist and the
antagonist – and you have to let your readers know that.

So
before you start plotting your story, decide what it is that your protagonist
wants so badly. Then figure out what all
he or she is going to have to do to accomplish that goal. That effort, after all, is the plot.

Next
you need to attach an emotional context to that goal. In other words, why is it
so important? What is this person’s
motivation to accomplish this goal? Love is a motivation. Greed is a motivation. Guilt is a motivation.
Fear, envy, jealousy, ambition are all motivations. The need to prove something
to yourself or to others is a fine motivation. “it’s my job” is not a very good
motivation for your hero. Nor is “because I’m evil” a good motivation for your
villain. Dig deeper.

Next week I’LL dig deeper into different kinds
of story conflict and offer some good examples to follow.

About Me

I am the author of 5 detective novels in the Hannibal Jones series - Blood and Bone, Collateral Damage, The Troubleshooter, Damaged Goods and Russian Roulette, plus 4 action adventure novels, The Payback Assignment, The Orion Assignment, The Piranha Assignment and the Ice Woman Assignment. I'm active in several local writers’ organizations - a past president of the Maryland Writers Association and past vice-president of the Virginia Writers Club. By day I handle media relations for the Defense Department. For more than a decade the American Forces Network carried my radio and television news reports. I've settled in Upper Marlboro, Maryland and launched Intrigue Publishing.